They cut the ribbon at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company's new $17.5 million theater in Over-the-Rhine Friday night.

“Cut” may not be the best word to describe it, though. With Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley and philanthropist Otto M. Budig positioned at the building’s front doors, the scarlet ribbon was severed by a pair of swords wielded by CSC producing artistic director Brian Isaac Phillips and executive director Jay Woffington. This is Shakespeare, after all. Flourish is important.

As Phillips told the invitation-only crowd at the outset of the ceremony, the project has been completed on budget and on schedule.

“And we don’t open for another three-and-a-half weeks,” he crowed. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opens Sept. 8 in The Otto M. Budig Theater, 1195 Elm St. at W. 12th St. in Over-the-Rhine.

Then Phillips got serious. He explained that when he came to Cincinnati nearly 20 years ago, he intended to stay only long enough to complete a one-year internship at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. Instead, he became a part of the young Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, as the company was known then. Before long, he became the company’s artistic leader.

A few years later, he and the rest of the company had to decide where the company was headed.

“I could be a cog in someone else’s machine. Or I could make the machine, make it as we saw fit. And here it is. Because of you, we are here tonight.”

Mayor Cranley spoke briefly, noting that he was now a CSC subscriber. Budig, for whom the entire complex is named, spoke as well. Like so many people during an evening filled with appreciations and toasts, Budig quoted Shakespeare.

“Ambition’s debt is paid,” he said, quoting a line from the third act of “Julius Caesar.” Then he turned to Phillips and added, “This is a proud day. I’m honored to be here.”

Using swords instead of the more traditional scissors, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company executive ...more

Using swords instead of the more traditional scissors, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company executive director Jay Woffington (center L) and producing artistic director Brian Isaac Phillips (center R) do the ribbon-cutting honors for the $17.5 million Otto M. Budig Theater, the new home of CSC. Also on hand were (from L) CSC board president Kelley Downing, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, philanthropist Otto Budig and former CSC board president Don Tecklenburg.

Provided/Mikki Schaffner

Other elected officials were in attendance, as well, including Hamilton County commissioner Denise Driehaus, state representative Catherine D. Ingram, in whose district the theater is located, and state representative Brigid Kelly, representing District 32. Later, in what appeared to be an example of deftly choreographed political civility uncommon these days, mayoral candidate Yvette Simpson arrived soon after Mayor Cranley left.

As the 100-or-so guests poured into the building, it quickly became evident that the real star of the evening would be theater itself. Designed by GBBN Architects and built by Messer Construction, the interior of the 38,000-square-foot facility is a subdued mix of grays with a smattering of surfaces crafted from repurposed barn board, much of it decorated with Shakespeare quotes engraved, etched and mounted on every imaginable inch of space.

Most of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Otto M. Budig Theater is decorated with subdued ...more

Most of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Otto M. Budig Theater is decorated with subdued colors. But just north of the lobby is this hallway, decorated with a boldly colored graphic representing the productions of theater’s inaugural season in its new home.

David Lyman for The Enquirer

The building’s meeting rooms are named for pubs mentioned in Shakespeare’s scripts. There are the Porpentine and the Phoenix, both from “The Comedy of Errors,” along with The Elephant (“Twelfth Night”) and The Boar’s Head (“Henry IV”).

The cleverness isn’t limited to meeting rooms. You get to the laundry room and not only are the sponsors’ names listed – Glenn and Cassandra Plott – but also the famed line “Out, damn’d spot! Out, I say!” It’s a line from “Macbeth,” referred to in the building only as “The Scottish Play.” Superstition is abundant in theater. Not mentioning “Macbeth” by name while inside a theater is a big one.

Each step to the upper level has the title of another of Shakespeare’s plays. Even the sinks in the restrooms have quotes engraved in them: “A little water clears us of this deed,” they read, invoking a line from the murderous Lady Macbeth.

Quotations from Shakespeare pop up in the most unexpected places in The Otto M. Budig Theater, the ...more

Quotations from Shakespeare pop up in the most unexpected places in The Otto M. Budig Theater, the new $17.5 million home of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Even the restroom sinks are part of the show, invoking a line spoken by the murderous Lady Macbeth.

Provided/Mikki Schaffner

There were live performers on hand, too: A brass quartet from the May Festival, a string trio from Walnut Hills High School and a performance of the balcony pas de deux from Cincinnati Ballet’s “Romeo and Juliet,” danced by two members of Cincinnati Ballet II, Sammie Riester and John Michael Donley.

It’s hard to overestimate what a monumental step forward this is for the company, which is beginning its 24th season. Since 1998, its home has been a Race Street location formerly occupied by The Movies Repertory Cinema. It was a dark and cramped space that seated 150. The Otto M. Budig Theater, on the other hand, is spacious and filled with state-of-the-art technology. It has 233 seats, none of which is more than six rows from the stage. Likewise, instead of a lobby that could barely accommodate a modest crowd, the new facility has an oversized lobby ringed with windows and topped by a vaulted ceiling.

Everywhere you look in the new Otto M. Budig Theater, there are quotations from Shakespeare. Here, ...more

Everywhere you look in the new Otto M. Budig Theater, there are quotations from Shakespeare. Here, the sign for the backstage laundry room not only carries the sponsors’ names – Glenn and Cassandra Plott – but also the famed line “Out, damn’d spot! Out, I say!” from “Macbeth.”

Provided/Mikki Schaffner

Even the lobby bar has been elevated into a new realm. At the old theater, the bar was five feet long. Maybe. There was so little space that drinks that were pre-ordered for delivery at intermission had to be picked up at the box office. There just wasn’t enough room at the bar.

The new bar, an island at the north end of the lobby, measures in at 100 linear feet. And it has a dedicated area for those pre-ordered drinks.

The ribbon-cutting was all part of a festive weekend scheduled to include a second invitation-only gathering Saturday night and a 3 p.m.-7 p.m. open house on Sunday, followed by the first performance of Shakespeare in the Park’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” in Washington Park.